


Honestly Brutal

by mydeira, Sadbhyl



Series: Responsible Adults (aka, The Menageaverse) [91]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-11
Updated: 2013-04-11
Packaged: 2017-12-08 04:56:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/757300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sadbhyl/pseuds/Sadbhyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, at least nobody loses an eye this time around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honestly Brutal

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published October 24, 2005
> 
> Spoilers: through “Dirty Girls”. [](http://sadbhyl.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://sadbhyl.livejournal.com/)**sadbhyl** and her requests for details are a godsend. Without them things would fall flat. And when she says she hates me, I know it’s a good thing.

“If you won’t listen to reason, at least let me come along,” Giles offered, relentlessly pursuing Buffy as she kept trying to get away from him.

“You think I don’t know that the vineyard is a trap?” She stopped, whirling around to face him and forcing him to draw up short. “It has trap written all over it. But we need to go there. It’s time those girls knew what we were up against,” she said coldly.

“Buffy, do you even hear yourself?” he asked in disbelief. “There is no justifiable reason for taking this kind of risk.”

“The girls need to know,” she repeated, her voice still bare of all emotion. “And no, you are not going.”

“Do you want this to be a suicide mission?” His anger finally snapped. “I’ve never known you to be this rash or reckless before. You’re putting those girls’ lives on the line; you need every advantage you can get in that place. No one can read Ethan better than I can.”

“Because you read him so well the last three years.”

“Buffy!”

“What, Giles? He’s fooled you once. He’ll fool you again. And that could cost us lives as well. Did you ever consider that?” She looked at him, unflinching. “Ethan knows how to play you. That’s not a disadvantage we can afford right now.”

“But you forget, Buffy, I know how to play Ethan as well. It goes both ways. I could be the distraction you need down there.”

“I can’t risk losing you,” Buffy said evenly.

“Yet you’re willing to risk those inexperienced girls, not to mention Faith and Xander.”

“Don’t forget Spike,” she added. “Oh wait, no, he’s the one you don’t care about.”

“Buffy, I did what I thought—”

“Was right,” she finished for him bitterly. “And now I’m doing what I think is right.”

“If you insist on going through with this foolishness, I’m going whether you want me there or not.”

She considered him coolly, arms crossed. “Fine,” she said. “But you aren’t to get involved. I don’t even want Ethan to know you’re there. You understand?”

He nodded, knowing full well that staying uninvolved and unnoticed would be next to impossible.

 

 

Things couldn’t have gone worse. The Bringers had set upon them almost the moment they were all inside the wine cellar. There was no time to think or prepare as blades flashed and they were forced to defend themselves.

But the potentials managed to hold their own against the onslaught of Bringers, thanks in no small part to Dawn’s strategic guidance. She had their attention and respect in a way Buffy could never hope, but she was also one of them.

Giles had just taken out a particularly savage Bringer when an unseen force lifted him from the ground and flung him unceremoniously against one of the support beams.

“Oh, Ripper,” Ethan chided him. “No one watching your back, how unfortunate.”

Winded, instinct kicked in and Ripper lunged, hell bent on tearing the man limb from limb for his betrayal. But Ethan was prepared for this and stopped him in mid action, suspending Giles immobile in the air.

“You really are far too predictable,” Ethan laughed, eyes traveling over Giles. “All that rage for me. Feels good, doesn’t it? Looks good on you, too.”

Giles scanned the room and noted that his and Ethan’s confrontation went unnoticed in the raging battle. Buffy was a fool for brining them there, but Giles was a fool for tagging along. She knew this would happen. He knew this would happen. The truth was, a part of him had been waiting for this to happen.

“I can see your mind working, trying to figure out how you’re going to get out of this with everyone else too busy saving their own necks to bother saving yours. It’s quite tragic.” Ethan sighed tragically, his smirk undermining the sentiment. “There was a time that I couldn’t hold you like this for very long. When did you become so weak, Rupert?”

“Just kill me and be done with it, Ethan,” Giles snapped. “It’s what you’ve been wanting to do for years, isn’t it?”

Something unreadable flashed through Ethan’s eyes as Giles felt himself being lowered to the ground. “With you unable to defend yourself?” Ethan shook his head. “Too easy, and hardly satisfying enough.”

“Too easy? Ethan, you’ve spent your entire life trying to make things easy for yourself. I don’t know what your problem is now,” Giles scoffed. While he was denied any physical attacks, he could still strike out verbally.

Ethan shrugged the words off. “You have a point. But even you have to admit, we should end a bit more spectacularly than this.”

“Was it real? Any of it? Or were you just passing the time for three years waiting for something better to come along?” Giles accused.

“Something like that,” Ethan replied simply. “I still can’t believe I fooled you, Rupert. After everything between us, it just took good old fashioned persistence in the end. Though I think Joyce played a major role in winning your trust. Once I figured out how great your weakness was for her, the rest was child’s play.”

Hearing that hurt more than Giles wanted to admit. In the beginning, he had accused Ethan of using Joyce to such ends. But time had gone by and the suspicions were allayed.

“I amazed even myself,” Ethan continued. “But loneliness is a powerful tool when one knows how to use it. You were both so eager to have someone, anyone, in your beds, too blind to see each other . . . I hardly had to do a thing to have you eating,” he paused with a leer, “out of my hands.”

Ripper was going to kill him. No, not Ripper. Giles was going to kill the son of a bitch if it was the last thing he did.

The bonds holding Giles in place disappeared, causing him to stumble slightly under his own support again.

“Now,” Ethan said, “I think you are perfectly capable of defending yourself. Shall we?”

Before he could think of reacting, Giles was flung back against the wooden support once more. He couldn’t be entirely certain that the cracking sound was the wood or his own bones giving under the impact.

“You could at least give it the old college try, Rupert,” Ethan said sadly as he approached. “There was a time I would have been well on my way to internal bleeding by now.”

Giles coughed, pain flaring in his right side. Bones after all. “If you had given me half a chance, you would be,” he growled.

“This from the man who used to take the chance, given or no. Truly pathetic. The world is ending, and you’re still worried about etiquette.”

Ripper lunged for the other man, ignoring the sharp stab in his side as he crashed into Ethan, knocking them both to the ground. Age and his own pain were inconsequential at the moment. Ripper saw red. Ethan had mocked him too long.

When his fist connected with Ethan’s jaw, Giles felt an intense satisfaction. Too long in coming. He struck Ethan again and again. The third blow never connected, instead firmly restrained by Ethan’s left hand. His smile was dark as he looked up at Giles.

“I told you once that you only ever had the upper hand because I let you have it.”

Ethan’s right fist slammed against Giles’ jaw, stunning him.

“And I’ve decided not to let you have it anymore.” Ethan shoved Giles off of him as if he were no more than a blanket. Rising, he brushed himself off. “There are many forms of power, Rupert. The least of which the First has promised me.”

Even Ripper couldn’t help Giles now. He was too old for this fight. It took all of his effort not to pass out, let alone even consider taking on Ethan again.

“So this is how it ends. I was really hoping you would have put up a better fight.”

In slow motion he watched Ethan’s arm raise, felt the air grow heavy as it charged.

“Buffy, stop him!” Giles heard Xander scream from a distance.

But the Slayer stood there, frozen in place, not moving, eyes wide, weapon hanging useless in her hand.

Giles could see the energy now, gathering in Ethan’s upstretched hand. And then the hand moved hurling the energy away, in the direction of where Xander’s voice had come. The room reverberated with the impact, dust raining down from above.

After that, everything sped up. One moment Ethan was standing above him, turning to inspect the damage he had wrought, and in the next he was unconscious on the ground, Faith standing over him with a broken two-by-four poised to strike again. Then Buffy was there, stopping her in mid swing.

“We need to get out of here, now!” Buffy barked as the room shuddered around them again.

Faith gave her a dark look before tossing the board aside, then without a word to her, bent down and helped Giles to his feet. He groaned.

“Sorry, G, no time to be gentle, I don’t think this place has long to stand,” she apologized, dragging him out in a haze of pain.

It wasn’t until they were well outside into the crisp night air, that Giles let himself slip from her side and collapse into blissful oblivion on the dewy grass.


End file.
